Baroque and Roll: How AI Found Metal in a Masterpiece
What happens when you ask ChatGPT to analyze a 17th-century Flemish painting? A wild conversation about demons, chaos, and why David Ryckaert’s “Dulle Griet” feels like the Renaissance version of a heavy metal album cover.
One of my favorite things about traveling is visiting art museums — wandering through galleries, discovering new works, and revisiting old favorites. Last October, on a rainy day in Osaka, I began experimenting with AI’s visual processing capabilities to analyze artwork. This entailed me uploading photos I was taking in the museum to ChatGPT and asking it to do such things as:
- Describing what it sees in the image.
- Generating narrative stories based upon what it sees, sometimes from the perspective of different subjects in the work.
- Identifying the provenance and genre of the artwork.
- Identifying the elements that make the artwork typical (or unique) compared to other works from that period, region, or style.
- Conducting a formal analysis of the work — everything from brushstrokes to color palettes.
- Digging into the underlying themes, allegorical references, and historical context of the artwork.
So far, the results have been fascinating and ocassionally even mind-blowing. I’ll admit from the start that AI art analyses are not always accurate, but they often are, and they’re almost always insightful in ways that push me to engage more deeply with the work than I would have by myself.
Yes, yes, I know. I’m still technically “by myself.” But there’s no denying that engaging with ChatGPT has opened the door to a more dynamic, back-and-forth, and dare I say dialogic engagement with art that goes way beyond any experience I’ve ever had with a wall text written by humans. (Sorry, curators.)
So, I’m thinking more and more about developing an AI-powered “art buddy” of sorts. Imagine it: visitors exploring artworks on their own terms, asking as many questions as they want, and diving deeper into whatever it is that catches their interest. And if the chatbot were linked to the museum’s content management system (a very easy thing to set up, fully automated), the detail would be even richer and more accurate than just a standard-issue LLM analyzing an artwork.
I’ve been really excited about this idea, and I plan to write more about soon, but until then here’s a humorous example to whet your appetites…
Recently, on a trip to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, I uploaded a photo of Dulle Griet by David Ryckaert and ask a snarky question, more in line with a half-serious museum visitor than an art historian. I was curious to see how it would handle it.
What happened next? Let’s just say ChatGPT’s response was metal as hell.
(Note, the conversation that follows includes some salty language. You’ve been warned.)
Question: Is this painting fucking metal or what?
ChatGPT: Yes, this painting is absolutely fucking metal. This is like the Renaissance version of a heavy metal album cover, where a lone hero confronts a chaotic swarm of nightmarish demons and grotesque creatures with nothing but pure defiance and brute strength. The energy here is all-out war against hell itself, complete with feral beasts, winged horrors, and a flaming backdrop that screams “epic battle scene.”
Why This is Pure Metal:
Lone Warrior vs. the Horde: The central figure, armed with what looks like a mighty club, stands in heroic opposition to an entire army of demons. His raised weapon, wild expression, and mid-strike pose are the visual equivalent of a killer guitar solo.
(Author’s Note: This is incorrect. It’s actually “Mad Margaret,” aka Dulle Griet, an archetype from Flemish folklore of a rebellious and chaotic feminine figure who leads an army of women into Hell — considerably more metal than what ChatGPT describes.)
Apocalyptic Chaos: The demon horde is a twisted mix of surreal creatures — snakes, winged monsters, skeletal figures, and hybrid beasts — all surging forward in a frenzy of hellfire and destruction. This is pure death metal fantasy, where the boundary between life and nightmare dissolves.
Hellish Lighting and Atmosphere: The flames on the right provide a fiery glow, casting everything in eerie light, creating that perfect doom-laden ambiance. It’s chaotic, brutal, and visceral, but with just enough focus on detail to keep it grounded in reality — like a symphonic black metal track.
Hero as Antihero: The figure isn’t a saint or a noble knight; he’s [sic] rough, rugged, and ready to take on hell itself, a true metal protagonist who embraces chaos and battles it head-on.
Artistic Context
This painting may be linked to depictions of Saint Anthony or Saint George, but it’s dialed up to eleven in terms of intensity. It’s likely a Flemish or Dutch Baroque painting in the tradition of Hieronymus Bosch or David Teniers the Younger, where the lines between moral allegory and full-on visual fantasy get beautifully blurred.
(Author’s note: It’s actually the Flemish artist David Ryckaert III. When I later asked ChatGPT to explain its logic, it responded with the following: 1) Demonic battles are a hallmark of 16th-17th century Flemish art; 2) The central figure’s exaggerated facial expression is typical of the “satirical and allegorical approach” these painters used; and 3) It already knew I was in the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna, which is a “key center” of Flemish and Dutch art. So, while technically incorrect, it was a pretty solid guess.)
If you want, I can write this as an actual metal-inspired description — or match it with a song! Let me know!
Question: No thank you. So, you’d say this is pure metal, not false metal?
Absolutely PURE METAL — no false metal here. This is the kind of painting that Manowar would approve of, no question. It’s got everything a true metal image needs: chaos, defiance, and a lone figure standing against impossible odds, surrounded by gnarly monsters, fire-lit carnage, and raw energy.
This isn’t some weak, derivative fluff — this is the OG hellscape, conjuring visions of heavy riffs and epic battles against darkness. Total brutality, total glory.
Verdict: PURE METAL — certified and unrelenting.
So there you have it. ChatGPT’s verdict: Pure Metal. That’s one for the (art) books.
Shawn Clybor (Ph.D.) is an AI consultant, technology and systems architect, and the founder of Clybor Consulting. With a passion for technology and its role in transforming small businesses, Shawn focuses on helping business leaders and startups leverage AI, no-code and low-code platforms, and tools to drive growth and scalability. Shawn has published extensively for public and academic audiences.
